it took president obama fulfilling his campaign promise to end the iraq war and we are grateful that he brought the war to an end. but we must not forget how we got into the war in the first place. so that these mistakes are not repeated. we were told there were weapons of mass destruction. we were warned about mushroom clouds. now i offered an amendment at the time that would have taken us down a different path. it would have required the united states to work through the united nations inspectors and maximizing diplomacy to determine whether or not iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction. unfortunately my amendment failed by a vote of 72-355. what happened from there we all know the tragic consequences. president bush dragged this country into an unnecessary war. no weapons of mass destruction were ever found. the cost of the iraq war soared far beyond what was projected. we lost 4,400 american troops in iraq and over 32,000 were wounded, not to mention iraqis. once the war started, many of us in congress quickly organized. led by congresswoman maxine waters and my good fri